Commission composes draft statute for UNIVESP, the state’s fourth public university

The São Paulo State Virtual University Foundation will offer distance learning and hybrid programs free of charge to increase higher learning

By Elton Alisson

Agência FAPESP – The special commission of the Universidade Virtual do Estado de São Paulo (UNIVESP) held its first meeting at the beginning of August. Created through a decree by São Paulo State Governor Geraldo Alckmin, the special commission’s objective is to create a draft of the proposed statute of the UNIVESP Foundation within 60 days.

The special commission is composed of Carlos Vogt, coordinator of UNIVESP and the commission’s work; João Grandino Rodas, rector of the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), president of the São Paulo State Universities’ Rectors’ Council (CRUESP) and FAPESP advisor; Laura Laganá, superintendent of the Paula Souza State Center for Technological Education; and João Carlos Ferrari Corrêa, coordinator of higher education in the São Paulo State Secretariat of Economic Development, Science and Technology.

The special commission expects to send Alckmin the UNIVESP Foundation statute proposal in October to allow it to be promulgated by decree. After the statute is promulgated, the UNIVESP Foundation can be formally established in the current Paula Souza Center in downtown São Paulo. The Center is slated to move to a new building in Nova Luz, São Paulo city, which is currently under construction.

The Fundação UNIVESP headquarters will house the virtual university’s academic and administrative management departments, the curatorial and technical-administrative boards, professors’ offices and learning and research centers, which are all part of the institution’s structure.

“The expectation is that Fundação UNIVESP will be up and running by the beginning of 2013,” said Vogt to Agência FAPESP. Vogt was rector at the Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) and FAPESP president from 2002-2007.

Since its inauguration in 2008 as a program to increase higher education in the state of São Paulo, UNIVESP has offered courses such as pedagogy (in partnership with the Universidade Estadual Paulista, UNESP), a Bachelor of Science, a specialization in Ethics, Values and Citizenship in Schools and a specialization in Ethics, Values and Health in Schools (together with USP).

When UNIVESP is transformed into a foundation, it will be able to offer courses jointly with the São Paulo state universities and the Paula Souza Center and to offer and create its own courses, all free of charge.

Some of the courses the institution intends to offer in its first years of operation are education degrees in Portuguese and Mathematics, as well as bachelor’s degrees in Systems for Electronic Commerce and Information Security.

“Once the Fundação UNIVESP is formally created and recognized by the State Board of Education, we will be able to create our own course offerings, which will need to be accredited by the Ministry of Education,” explained Vogt.

The virtual university is also expected to offer a new graduate-level course in Technology Management Processes together with the Paula Souza Center and Education degrees in science in cooperation with USP. Graduate courses in Computer Engineering and Computer-aided Production Engineering together with UNESP are also in the planning stages.

At the post-graduate level, UNIVESP is expected to offer specializations in Ethics, Values and Citizenship together with USP, a Brazilian Sign Language Teacher Certification with UNICAMP and an Engineering Teacher Certification with the USP Polytechnic School.

Together with the graduate and post-graduate courses, UNIVESP is expected to develop English and Spanish language courses for public, civil and military employees. “The UNIVESP system will be distributed throughout the State of São Paulo,” said Vogt.

Expanding education

UNIVESP will be the fourth public state university in São Paulo, in addition to USP, UNESP and UNICAMP. It will focus exclusively on higher education distance learning and hybrid courses.

UNIVESP’s objective will be to increase the number and distribution of enrollment spots for study in higher education in the state. Approximately 10% of students who complete high school in São Paulo State attend state universities, which are currently concentrated in only a few of the state’s 645 municipalities.

UNIVESP plans to have 40 permanent professors (35 assistant professors and 5 full professors) and aims to offer admission to more than 24,000 students within four years. Today, the three public state universities have over 170,000 students combined.

To meet this goal, UNIVESP will make extensive use of information and communication technology (ITC), which is used on a large scale by some of the world’s largest universities, such as Stanford and Duke in the United States.

In the US, both Harvard University and MIT announced in May that they are creating on-line platforms to offer free courses to students worldwide.

According to specialists in the area, the general trend is that there will soon be no difference between on-line courses and classroom courses; both will be administered through technology.

“UNIVESP is attentive to both the social needs within the higher education system in the state of São Paulo as well as the global trends in education. Its role is to be innovative, motivating and aggregating,” said Vogt.

TV and journal

One of UNIVESP’s features is UNIVESP TV, an open access digital TV channel (channel 2.2 on TV Cultura’s spectrum) that transmits class programs and complementary programs for course activities from 8 am-1:30 am every day.

UNIVESP TV has produced nearly 1,000 hours of course programming since 2008, supporting formal courses and courses open to the general public on different topics and in different fields, following the lines of knowledge as a public good.

UNIVESP TV programming can also be seen live online at http://univesptv.cmais.com.br. All programming can be found on a YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/univesptv), which has had some 3 million views since it was inaugurated in April 2010.

Another highlight is the online journal, Pré-UNIVESP, which is directed at pre-university students and covers important subjects from the country’s prominent college entry exams (vestibulars). Pré-UNIVESP content is high quality and free and has a monthly thematic dossier focused on current issues.

“The Pré-UNIVESP journal fills a gap, providing a space where students can reflect, not just memorize content. It is a product aimed at a broad yet focused public that wants to participate in discussions and to be better prepared for college,” said Vogt.

For more information: www.univesp.ensinosuperior.sp.gov.br